


Fearless

by LocalVodkaAunt



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Kidfic, SaboAceWeek2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-24 02:06:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18160058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LocalVodkaAunt/pseuds/LocalVodkaAunt
Summary: Sabo and Ace have big plans for their future.





	Fearless

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the second day of SaboAceWeek 2019 for the prompt "Alone together".
> 
> Thanks to [problematicorca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/problematicorca/pseuds/problematicorca) for beta-ing this piece of drunken 'art'! 
> 
> As always, let me know what you liked, what you didn't like or just leave me an emoji!

“Would anyone even notice when we’re gone?”

 

Sabo and Ace sit on a broad branch, their feet dangling into the open air. Over them is a sky of green and blue, tiny leaves rustling in the breeze and gaps with clouds in between. Under them there is only the soft moss, that dampens their voices and makes them sound hollow. They made a bit of money today, and invested it in bread and juice, which they are now sharing between them. Or that was the plan at least. In reality, Sabo swats Ace’s hands away for the hundredth time, trying to secure his share of the food. 

 

“Maybe Dadan would come looking for me eventually. She’s probably scared Garp will kill her if I don’t become a righteous marine.” Ace grimaces. “Whatever righteous means.” 

 

Sabo begins to speak, then thinks better of it. “It’s all stupid anyway.” 

 

“Being a marine sounds boring, I’d rather see some action.” 

 

The last of the bread is gone, leaving Sabo with only the little piece he holds in his hand. Between them, they have only two sips of juice, big talk and a small chest they want to fill with coin. At the moment, the bottom is barely covered in small copper pieces, with the two bigger silver coins standing out like two eyes, watching their every move. 

 

“We’d better steal a boat then, this will get us nowhere.” Sabo has a concentrated look on his face, his fingers are moving over the money, trying to guess the value of it all. “Except if we’re buying juice, then it will give us an awful lot of it.” 

 

His friend only shrugs. “Juice can’t swim. Also boring.” 

 

“Then we’ll need to work a lot harder. Maybe I can sneak out of study time more often.” 

 

He is determined to make it, even though he has no idea how. Getting away from his teachers watchful eyes is difficult enough as it is, and they report his every move back to his parents, who pay them handsomely to keep him quiet and well behaved. Sometimes he envies Ace, who seems to come and go at Dadan’s place however he wants to. Whatever he does when they’re not together, it seems a lot more simple than math, or language study. 

 

“I don’t think they will miss me when I’m gone,” he says, more quietly now. “Maybe they’ll miss having a child, but they sure won’t miss me.” 

 

They both remain silent for a moment. Sabo can feel Ace’s eyes burning a hole in his arm, like he is trying to figure out something important. 

 

“Yeah, but…” Sabo trails off, staring in the distance. There’s not much to see there, only more branches and leaves, more birds and moss. Forest things. They all look slightly different, but they’re the same in the end. The woods are something he won’t miss if he sets out to sea. He’d rather have a clear view of the sky. That’s why the cliff where the trees open into steep rocks and waves are his favorite place in the city. Sometimes, before he goes back home, he goes there alone and watches the water split against the rocks, feeling the spray on his face. The smell of salt is heavy in the air then and the dark line of the horizon seems to be calling, always calling him to find out what lies beyond. 

 

He has seen it, on maps and globes. He knows the islands around his hometown, knows the four seas as blue spaces in between the little yellow ones. But there has to be more to it than that. If it was only sand, no one would become a sailor, and no one would bother to give name to the little black dots that indicate the villages. 

 

“...but if I would be the only one to miss you, and we’re going away together, then it doesn’t matter, right?” Ace smiles as he says it, a toothy grin that shows off his newly acquired missing tooth proudly. It sounds really simple if he puts it like that. Sabo thinks that’s really such a him-thing to say, always circumventing the complicated details and going for the shortest way possible. 

 

“I guess,” Sabo answers, but it sounds hollow even to his own ears. 

 

“Who cares about your parents or Garp?” Ace is getting flustered as he speaks, a little red between the brown of his freckles. “You should only care for the people who like you, and if that’s only me, then that’s it. But we can still find a crew on the way.” 

 

Sabo laughs. “So you’ll admit that I’ll be the captain?” 

 

“Pff, you wish.” A tiny drop of spit escapes through the gap in his teeth and gets lost somewhere between their tree and the next. “Or we’ll find you your own crew. But if everything sucks, we can still be just two.” 

 

It’s nice to imagine. He sees himself behind the steering wheel of a big ship, an enormous sail over his head, their initials painted on it. A+S, it reads, and it’s blown up the wind that drives them forward, closer to the sun. Ace stands before him, a telescope pressed to his eye, always on the lookout for islands and enemies. His hair is ruffled by the breeze, and when Sabo turns around, there is nothing behind them but the endless stretch of the East Blue, and the beach from where they left it long gone. 

 

“Let’s do that,” he says, well aware that his voice sounds dreamy. Sometimes, when he lies alone in his bed at night, the silence of their big town house all around him, he is terrified that all of this will never come true and that he’ll never get away from the stern and cold eyes of his parents, the bows and fake smiles. Then the walls of his room seem even more of a prison than usual, keeping him shut in a mansion that feels like it’s made of ice and indifference. 

 

“We’ll make it.” The grin on Ace’s face is unshakable, even as the other boy puts the lid back on the chest. “We need to get going, the sun will set soon!” He jumps from the tree, landing on the moss with a quiet thump. 

 

Everything is easy when Ace does it, and if Ace can do it, Sabo knows he can do it, too. So he follows. If Ace is waiting for him, he can get through dinner, through the lecture from his parents and their disdain. There’s no one else waiting for his friend either, and so Sabo knows he can always come back here. 

 

They run through the forest, racing to their hiding place with the chest pressed closely to Ace’s chest. Sabo feels bold, as if he cannot lose, even though he’s second when they arrive. The weird feeling is gone, and his way home is not as heavy as it used to be. 

 

Neither Sabo or Ace ever mention this afternoon again, and soon they forget all about it. It’s not necessary, anyway, since Sabo discovers that being with Ace makes him utterly fearless. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, come hand out with me at tumblr, @zorotrash :D


End file.
